As a children’s title that’s meant to compliment the theatrical release of Open Season, the game fulfills its mission of snagging shelf space, while still managing to throw in some entertaining moments into the mix. The comedy, while basic, actually had us laughing a few times through the game, and even though the story and character designs from the film are amazingly cookie-cutter, the game offers a few high points for anyone with little tikes in desperate need of some gaming goodness to go with the afternoon flick. Still, the game doesn’t have the polish necessary to really recommend it to anyone aside from Open Season fanatics, and we’d still stand by a rental as opposed to dropping full price for the game, especially when considering the Wii version, as all other console copies are dropping in price already. With a few multiplayer events and some decent gameplay mechanics, the game should last a younger player anywhere from 10-15 hours.

Open Season looks like many other animated adaptations on the market, but what it lacks more than anything is enjoyable gameplay. There’s no thrill attached to the empty “hide and sneak” gameplay, and the uneven motion controls derail the potentially blissful “Wild Ride” missions. Games designed for children should certainly be more accessible than others, but Open Season is insultingly easy, thus stripping away the whole point of playing the game. Those compelled to kill some time with Boog and Elliot should simply watch the film. It’s half as long and probably several times more interesting.

When it was released for the GameCube, Open Season was already walking that fine line between mediocrity and being total junk. Now, Ubisoft has published the same game for the Wii, has saddled it with inferior controls, and is asking 20 dollars more for it. That's a high premium to pay for a movie cash-in that wasn't much good to begin with.

It’s impossible to recommend this for anyone. There are only slight glimmers of enjoyment shown in this repetitive, simple and poorly ported four hour experience. The experience is frequently marred by load times, irresponsive controls and choppy graphics that shouldn’t be expected on any console on the market at the moment. Your money would be best suited elsewhere than on this terrible movie tie-in.

Kids looking for an adventure with their favorite characters from the movie will wonder why they're stuck picking up worms for a group of skunks. Adults looking for some new Wii software will wonder why they didn't pick up something more inline with the hardware's capabilities. Everyone else should know better in the first place.